According to this article women’s feet are getting bigger with the average shoe size going up from a size five to a size six within the last five years. Medical experts believe the rise in size is down to the obesity epidemic with people eating high density foods such as pizza during puberty, stimulating growth hormones. Research from Debenhams certainly supports this showing that in 2009 sales of size nine shoes increased by 23% whilst sales of size six shoes increased by 17%. Based on this the store is now considering stocking size ten shoes as standard rather than its largest women’s size being a nine. It’s not just women that are getting taller and heavier men are increasingly wearing bigger shoe sizes, with sizes 10, 11 and 12 being more popular. Personally as someone who takes a size 6 and half or 7 depending on the store I have trouble finding nice shoes. Most styles tend to make my feet look like aircraft carriers. If it is the case that women’s feet are indeed getting larger, I wonder whether manufacturers might start making nice shoes for those with slightly bigger feet.

If this article is correct we could soon expect to pay a little more for a carton of orange juice. According to the article cold weather and disease have hit the citrus groves in Florida which produce much of the world’s orange juice. This has already led to the price of concentrated juice doubling in the past year. As yet this has not affected the prices we pay in the supermarket because stores usually fix their prices a long time in advance, however, we should expect prices to rise by between 10 and 30 per cent when contracts are renegotiated.

According to this article around 16 million people use the same password for every website they use. It seems people faced with remembering multiple passwords prefer to use the same one for everything. Unfortunately, however, they are making themselves easy targets for fraud. A study has found that the average internet user is asked for a password on 23 websites a month. 46 per cent of British internet users, that’s around 15.6 million users have the same password for every website they use. Around 29% use variations of the same password by adding days of the weeks or adding numbers to the end of the word. One in ten users tend to use memorable dates, children’s names and mother’s maiden names and one in five users use their pet’s name. 40 per cent of users also admit to disclosing their passwords to friends and family rather than keeping them secret.

All of these things leave people open to fraud and potentially having numerous accounts compromised. It is, however, easy to see why people tend to use the same passwords when there is so much to remember. Identity theft experts recommend using multiple passwords and including a combination of letters and numbers in order to stay safe. Personally I have one of these password fingerprint readers which helps to make life a little easier allowing you to put in details of the sites you use and access them with a touch of your finger.

At first glance this might seem like quite a good buy for £3,000, but the bungalow is actually a condemned property. The bungalow at Knipe Point near Scarborough is situated dangerously close to the edge of a cliff and is likely to fall into the sea within 6 months. Artist, Mr Cunningham has brought the property so that he can spend his time painting its descent into the sea. He also intends to set up cameras inside the house in order to film its destruction. Many of the neighbouring houses have already gone over the edge and the property has recently developed cracks in the past few weeks so it seems the artist may need to paint rather quickly to get his moneys worth.

If this article is to be believed then you might be getting less beer for your money when you pop out for a pint. A study carried out by trading standards officers found that nine out of ten pints are sold short. In a test of 88 pints brought at bars and restaurants in Birmingham the average drink was three quarters of a fluid ounce short of the full glass, that’s about 12% short. Under the Weights and Measures Act of 1985 a pint of beer should be exactly a pint although froth can account for up to 5% of the pint as its considered an integral part of the beer.

If you have overdone this Christmas and are looking for a quick way to lose the extra weight then you might be interested in this new slimming pill. Called Capsiplex it is already used by Hollywood stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Bard Pitt and Britney Spears. Trials of the pill have found that it can burn off 278 more calories in adults before, during and after exercise than a placebo. The pill contains capsicum extract from hot chilli peppers and works by speeding up the metabolism causing people to lose weight more quickly. Presumably, as with most weight loss products it is best used combined with an existing weight loss programme so is unlikely to a miracle cure for all those couch potatoes out there. At £29.99 it’s not cheap either so you might be better off spending the money of a gym membership.

According to this article Japanese wine is seeing a rise in popularity. Whilst the country is not traditionally know for its great wines they are increasingly exporting to the US and Europe. Around 90 wineries operate near Mount Fuji with the focus on producing wine from 100% domestically grown grapes. The wineries already produce chardonnay and other wines from European grapes but have recently taken inspiration from the Koshu grape which is an indigenous variety. The resulting wine is being marketed as the perfect accompaniment to sushi and one Tokyo based wine merchant called Millesimes has won considerable critical acclaim for its Shizen 2006, Curvee Denis Durbourdieu. They are now exporting bottles to England and France and with interest growing, it appears we could be seeing more Japanese wine appearing in our supermarkets soon.

If this article is to be believed then our pets could have a bigger carbon footprint than the car we drive. According to the article the carbon footprint of a pet dog is more than double that of a sports utility vehicle. The analysis is based upon the fact that the average sized medium dog eats around 164 kilos (360 pounds) of meat and 95 kilos of cereal in a year. The land required to generate this amount or food has an annual footprint of 0.84 hectares, that’s twice the 0.41 hectares required by a 4 by 4 driving 6,200 miles a year. It appears other pets are no better for the environment, with cats having an eco-footprint of around 0.15 hectares, a little less than driving a Golf for a year. A hamster’s carbon footprint equates to a plasma TV and a goldfish, the equivalent to running two mobile phones. There are ways to reduce your pets carbon footprint such as feeding your cat on fish heads and left over's rather than premium choice cuts of meat. Still, given the choice between giving up my cats or the car, I know what I would rather keep, my cats might not be very useful but my car could never give me the companionship and entertainment that my cats do.

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